Tue Jul 18 2017Our technicians have an important job. They spend their workdays with you, our customers. They configure your home network and entertainment experience so you can enjoy the content you love. They strive to get you up and running, but they are also the first ones there if something isn’t working and you need help. They spend time with you in your home, hear about your lives, and meet your families.

We’re proud of the work our technicians do to serve customers like you, and we want to tell their stories. Jamaal White, one of our outstanding technicians, has served thousands of customers in the Philadelphia area. He’s a father, a hugger, and all around happy-go lucky guy, and he works every day to be the bright spot in our customers lives. Here is Jamaal’s story:

]]>Tue Apr 18 2017In celebration of Earth Day, we’re excited to announce a new power-saving feature of X1, a simple way for customers to "go green" and reduce wasted energy within the home. Put simply, power saver lets customers put their X1s on standby to reduce power usage - to as low as a night light in some cases - without affecting important functions like recording shows or movies or watching them on other devices within the home. The setting can be activated at any time by saying "power down" into the X1 voice remote. Additionally, saying "go green" will let you update your power settings so that the box automatically powers down after a set time of inactivity. Pushing any button on the remote will power it back up in seconds and customers will see a "welcome back" screen telling them how many hours of energy were conserved.

The bottom line is we wanted to design a simple system to manage our devices’ power usage so customers don’t have to think too much about it, but still make a substantive effort to "go green."

]]>Wed Dec 14 2016When I watched this video I was very concerned by what I saw. Our employees should always protect people and treat them with respect no matter what the situation. Safety matters most - especially in dangerous weather conditions like this.

We are actively investigating what happened when our technicians were on site to restore services during an outage and we will reach out to those who were impacted by this incident.

Within the next 24-48 hours, my team leaders will meet with our technicians across our company to use this as an example of how important it is to make everyone’s safety a priority in everything we do.

And just as important, there’s no place for disrespect - treating people the right way is the only way to work.

]]>Tue Sep 27 2016We are in the middle of a massive transformation. Everyone at Comcast has been working tirelessly on customer service improvements – from technology to training, and billing to store renovations – so that you get the great experience you deserve. We’ve been making big changes, but we know we still have more work to do. Here is where we are:

We’re listening. We’re in the process of rolling out the Net Promoter System (NPS) across the entire company so that every decision we make as a company is directly linked to feedback from you, our customers. We want to understand your experience through your eyes. Part of our NPS rollout is creating a regular process for calling you back after you interact with us to hear how we did. We’re initiating customer callbacks across all levels of the company – from our executive team to our frontline employees – and once fully rolled out we will be calling back over 3 million customers per year for their personal feedback. We discuss your comments constantly to ensure we’re making the right changes and doing so in a way that you feel a difference.

We’re innovating. We’ve developed new technologies that help us better track how your products are working and when you’re experiencing an issue so we can fix it ASAP. We’re constantly updating the My Account platform, which nearly 9 million customers are using, to control all aspects of their account from their mobile device or the web. One of our most popular features is the ability to schedule a call with us at your convenience; we’re really working on saving you time. We also incorporated more self-healing and help options into our products so you can manage your account – or fix any issues you might be having from your own home. This year we introduced new commands for the X1 voice remote so you can access My Account, restart your box or troubleshoot just by using your voice.

We’re redesigning our stores. All of our stores are becoming more customer friendly and interactive so you can come to us to try out new equipment, learn more about our products or get help from our team. More than 177 of our stores have been revamped, and we’re expanding to even more neighborhoods in 2017.

We’re starting to see real results. We know we still have work to do, but we’re excited about the progress we’re making. We’ve reached all-time highs across many of our key customer service areas. The number of customers who have had to call us is down 14 percent – which means your products are more reliable, your bill is easier to understand and our self-service platforms are making a difference. Our on-time arrival rate for technicians coming to your home has improved to over 97 percent. Our success rate for solving your issue on the FIRST call is up by 7 percent, getting us closer to our goal of fixing it right the first time, every time. Our Digital Care team is also getting back to you faster, as our response time on social channels improved by 95 percent.

More to come on this, as we continue to roll out new changes to simplify your experience, respect your time and make it right if we fall short.

]]>Fri May 06 2016I had the privilege of being in Tucson yesterday for the unveiling of our brand new customer support center, which opened its doors after a year of hard work. It was an amazing day, getting a chance to explore the new facility and to meet the more than 700 new employees who will be working hard everyday to help our customers.

Last May we announced an aggressive plan to open three new customer support centers, including this state-of-the-art facility in Tucson. Since then we’ve renovated a great location, and hired more than 700 new employees to staff it. These employees have already been serving customers from a temporary location, so we're able to hit the ground running in our permanent home. All employees are focused on getting the job done and doing what’s right for our customers.

We’re so excited about the facility and the team we have to serve all of you. And, if you’re on the hunt for something new, check out our open positions.

]]>Wed Apr 27 2016As the world changes and the Internet evolves, so do we. That’s why we are making a major change to our Internet data trials and moving to a terabyte data plan in all of our trial markets.

A terabyte is an enormous amount of data. It’s far more than most of our customers will ever use in a month. Today, more than 99 percent of our customers do not come close to using a terabyte. Our typical customer uses only about 60 gigabytes of data in a month – that’s far less than a terabyte (in fact, 940 gigabytes less), or less than six percent of a terabyte.

In our trials, we have experimented with different offers, listened to feedback, and learned a lot. That is what we said we would do when we launched our trials four years ago – analyze and assess our customers' reaction to the data plans, including being open to increasing them over time. We have learned that our customers want the peace of mind to stream, surf, game, download, or do whatever they want online. So, we have created a new data plan that is so high that most of our customers will never have to think about how much data they use.

What can you do with a terabyte? A whole lot. You can stream about 700 hours of HD video, play 12,000 hours of online games, and download 60,000 high-res photos in a month.

We know that data plans can be confusing, and we want to keep this simple. So here’s what’s happening:

All of the data plans in our trial markets will move from a 300 gigabyte data plan to a terabyte by June 1st, regardless of the speed.

For the very tiny portion of our customer super users (less than 1 percent of our customer base) who want more than a terabyte, they can sign up for an unlimited plan for an additional $50 a month, or they have the option to purchase additional buckets of 50 gigabytes of data for $10 each.

We’ll continue to provide easy access to a data usage meter for all of our customers.

We’ve always said that we’d look carefully at the feedback from our trials, continue to evolve our offers, and listen to our customers. We’re currently evaluating our plans to roll this out in other markets, we’ll keep listening – and we'll be open to making further changes in the future to deliver the best high-speed data service to our customers.

Stream, tweet, post, game, or watch whatever you want online … and enjoy it all carefree.

]]>Thu Apr 07 2016This month’s round of updates focused on making it easier to discover new programming as well as streamlining the viewing experience – getting you to the content you want to watch more quickly and efficiently. Check out a few of the highlights:

On Demand Only Networks in Search

As you know, Xfinity on Demand offers access to tons of content that’s ready to be watched when you’re ready to watch it. Lots of that content doesn’t necessarily air on a live channel. We’ve made it easier to find these On Demand-only shows and networks by adding them to search functionality on X1. This means now you can search for them by name and be directed quickly to the content you want. Upon selecting the Channel Collection in the search results, X1 viewers can then click through to the network page to find programs available from that provider – so channels like Angry Birds Toons and Kabillion can be found without having to manually navigate through the On Demand menu.

Auto Extend UI Enhancements

Ever miss the end of a recorded game because it went into unexpected overtime? Auto Extend is now available for recording of even more live events -- including NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, MLS NASCAR and NCAA Men’s Football and Basketball. We’ve also updated the feature so Auto Extend is the default "Stop" setting, in the Recording Options for all eligible sporting events, so if you forget to set it yourself, X1 will take care of it for you.

Kids Zone TV Listings

It is now easier than ever to view all the upcoming TV listings from the TV series entity page in Kids Zone. While in Kids Zone, customers can select "TV Listings" from the TV series menu to see the full lineup of new upcoming episodes as well as relevant information about each episode and the ability to set DVR recordings. This helps keep you up-to-date on new episodes from your kids’ favorite shows so you can keep the content on rotation in your home fresh (because how many times can you really have to overhear that one episode of Danger Mouse?)

Simplified Activation Verification

In a rush to set up your new X1 set top box? Now verification during activation is becoming a breeze. We’ve started rolling out a new screen for you to simply enter the last four digits of the account’s primary phone number. This simplified verification saves customers and technicians time and alleviates the frustration of having to enter a long account number.

Comcast Labs: Default Guide View

For those who exclusively watch in High Definition, this one’s for you. Now being tested in the Comcast Labs section of X1, users can select a Default Guide View – meaning you can control and personalize the type of content you see when pressing the Guide button on your remote – from HD Channels, to your Favorites, to what’s Trending, to Kids content. No matter what Guide view you select as your default, you can always get to any of the other guide views simply by pressing the Guide button twice.

]]>Tue Apr 05 2016We’re building a brand new customer support center in Charleston, South Carolina and adding a team of more than 550 people to help answer your questions, faster, and with the southern hospitality the Palmetto State is known for.

What does that mean for you? If you have TV, Internet or phone from Xfinity, you’ll have more than 550 people to help you get the most out of your products, as well as assist you with anything you need—from technical issues to billing questions.

And what does this mean for Charleston? More than 550 new jobs in a state-of-the-art customer support center. It’s the latest in a series of updates we’ve made throughout the region, including investments in making our network more reliable and other technologies — all part of our commitment to respect your time and simplify your experience.

All our customers deserve a faster and hassle-free experience with us. Hiring more talented people to help you navigate your TV, Internet and phone service is one way we’re making that happen. And if you’re in the Charleston area—or are considering a move—check back with us this summer when hiring begins. We’re looking for great people to join our team.

]]>Mon Sep 21 2015If you’re a customer in Oregon or southwest Washington - great news. We recently launched Tech ETA on the My Account app, a new feature in your neighborhood that allows you to see exactly when your tech is arriving for an appointment. No more waiting around.

Tech ETA on the My Account app alerts you when a technician is about 30 minutes away from your house, and you can see the technician’s progress on a map. The beauty of this feature is that you can check the app from wherever you are and head home when you see we’re on our way. If we are running late, which can happen if our tech gets tied up at someone else’s house, we will let you know that, too, and provide real-time status updates so you can plan accordingly.

We know that feedback is critical, so you have the opportunity to rate your experience with us after your appointment right from the app. It’s all part of our commitment to delivering the experience you deserve…every single time.

Markets across the Portland and Southwest Washington areas are the first to get this new My Account feature, so if you’re a customer there, check out the app and give Tech ETA a try. The feature was a huge success when we trialed it in Boston earlier this yearand it will be rolling out in other markets soon…so check back for updates. If you don’t already have the My Account app, download it here.

]]>Mon Aug 24 2015In 2014, nearly 63 million Americans made bill payments via mobile devices.* Millions of our customers already view and pay their Xfinity bill online or using the mobile app, without having to worry about envelopes or stamps. We recently made it even simpler with some new features on the My Account app.

When it’s time to set up your payment method, no more fumbling around with your keyboard. We’ve taken a cue from companies like Uber and USAA and incorporated a technology that lets you take a picture of your credit card to enter its information. Just hold the card in front of your smartphone camera and get it ready for its photo shoot. The app will automatically fill in the account number and expiration date. You verify the information is correct, fill in the 3- or 4-digit security code, tap to submit, and you’re done. You then have the option to save the card for future payments. We are also working to make your experience more consistent across our platforms. Any payment method you save on the app will automatically be available for use on our website, and vice versa.

A complete step-by-step process for viewing your balance and making payments on the My Account app can be found here.

]]>Thu Jul 30 2015A big part of our ongoing commitment to improve the customer experience is making sure our technicians are on time for customer visits and that installations and repairs are done right.

Yesterday we announced that we are hiring 200 new employees in Elmhurst, a suburb of Chicago, to staff two new centers there: a Technician Support Center and a Technician Logistics Center.

The new employees at these centers will be responsible for scheduling, monitoring and supporting our technicians in the field who do installations and make service visits to customers’ homes and businesses.

Our technicians in the field can call the Elmhurst support center while at a customer’s home to get more information, to walk through a procedure or to change an order if needed.

The logistics center employees will plan day-to-day operations for Comcast technicians in the Midwest and Southeast, in addition to the Chicago region.

This is just one example of how we are reinventing our technical operations to better serve our customers … stay tuned for more information as we continue to hire more people across the country.

This store is the first of its kind for us – it’s a center where customers can get their simplest or most complex Xfinity issues solved, but it’s also an innovation hub where we’re trialing new technologies to improve the in-store experience. We’ve been experimenting and perfecting this new engagement model for more than a year, working on new escalation models and seamless integration with the My Account app. All of this experimentation has been done entirely with the customer in mind.

Innovative new store features include:

An Associate Toolkit that will give store team members a detailed, proactive view of the customer’s account

Online Appointment Scheduling that allows guests to make appointments in advance from their computers or mobile devices

A new Customer Engagement Model where store representatives greet customers as they arrive and serve as a guide throughout their visit, and as their primary point of contact after they leave the store

Intelligent Queueing that allows customers to reserve a place ‘in line,’ enabling them to explore the store while they wait for a representative

Demonstration Towers where customers can experience the latest in Xfinity entertainment

Events and Activities for the entire community like educational workshops, movie nights and other special events

The store has over 800 feet of LED screens and large-scale media installations including a 107-foot-long LED media band wrapping the store’s upper walls.

These changes are all a part of our larger effort to improve the customer experience, which includes redesigning all our stores. We’ve renovated or built 128 new stores to date and plan to reach all locations (more than 500) in the next few years.

Studio Xfinity’s grand opening events were held earlier this month to celebrate this new retail experience. If you’re interested in learning more, check out www.studioxfinity.com or visit the store at The Shops on Fremont, 901 W. Weed St.

We’ll see you there!

]]>Wed Jul 08 2015How difficult is it to describe something happening on your TV that only you can see?

When a customer calls us with a question, words can get in the way. A description of the problem or an explanation of the solution can literally get lost in translation. Wouldn’t it be great if you could say, "let me show you what I’m talking about"?

We are currently trialing a new tool on X1 called Co-Pilot that will let you do just that.

Customers often have questions like, "how can I set up a DVR recording?" With Co-Pilot, our tech support can see a customer’s screen and—after receiving an on-screen verification code from the customer—"take the controls," walking them through the various features that come with their service.

Here’s how it works:

Co-Pilot is in the trial phase, but so far the feedback has been great. It’s been most frequently used to show customers how to use new features on X1. We’re still working on the finishing touches, but plan to make Co-Pilot available to all X1 customers later this year.

New features like Co-Pilot and Tech Tracker are part of our efforts to be more open and transparent with our customers – we want to share as much information with them as possible, and we want them to be able to share what they are seeing and experiencing with us. We think transparency leads to the best experiences and we are working hard to open our systems to customers so they are more informed (and so are we). All of these improvements are just a piece of a much larger effort to improve our customer service.

]]>Mon Jun 08 2015Our Help & Support Forums are a great place to find answers about your XFINITY products or to get help for service issues. Our forums get over two million unique visitors per month and if you Google a product or service question, they’re right at the top of the search results.

Our forums give you a place where you can learn from your fellow customers. In fact, nearly 98% of the searches conducted by visitors to the forum turn up related results that were generated by others posing similar questions.

While our forums have been a great resource for years, our format was a little outdated. We want to make this tool as easy as possible for you to use, so we recently rebuilt our forums from the ground up, with a completely new user interface and easier navigation. Here are some of the key features:

Improved Search

The new search function includes real-time suggestions for posts that match your search terms. There’s also the option to create a new post right from the search bar if none of the results answer your question.

Improved Content Categorization

We’ve organized all the content to help you find answers and solve problems faster.

New Homepage Features

We highlight the most recently solved issues and feature our most active users—our Experts—and the rewards they have earned for reaching new levels of expertise and helping the most customers.

Links to Related Content

When viewing a discussion thread, the bottom of the page now has links to relatedcontent that may help answer your question and green check marks to let you quickly see that the question in that thread was answered.

The forums aren’t just a place for seeking out solutions on your own. This peer-to-peer community contains thousands of active users, who answer questions and contribute to discussions. In addition, with the tripling of our Digital Care team, we’ve been able to dedicate Comcast experts to help customers directly in the forums. If you visit and are unable to answer your question on your own or with the help of fellow customers, a member of our Digital Care team can help you directly to solve your problem the same as if you called in or reached out to us on Twitter or Facebook.

As with any community, it’s the people in our forums who count. We’re fortunate to have a small but passionate group of independent Experts who are customers just like you and are committed to help you with whatever question you might have. These experts have helped us keep the community lively, and we hope this redesign is something they appreciate, too. Down the road we’ll be adding other features like badging and gamification to the forums so we can harness the collective wisdom of the crowd by encouraging more visitors to log in and offer solutions.

We want you to be able to find help whenever and wherever you want. Whether it’s on the phone, in a store, through our social care agents, our My Account app, or our improved Help & Support Forums, we’re making it easier and faster for you to find solutions to your questions and service issues.

So next time you have a question, check out our forums. They might already have the answers you’re looking for.

]]>Tue Jun 02 2015

UPDATE: June 4, 2015

The page where customers who were impacted by this issue can request their credit is now live.

UPDATE: June 12, 2015

For customers in CA, WA, and AZ who were impacted by this service issue, we have extended the availability of the online credit request form to Monday, June 15, 2015 at 12:00 pm EST.

Last night, Internet service for a number of our customers in the western part of the country was degraded or unavailable for several hours. We had a team on this immediately, and were able to restore full service to most customers by 9pm PT.

We know that having a fast, reliable connection to the Internet is vital and that interruptions of this sort are unacceptable. We’re sorry that we didn’t live up to that last night. We are giving a credit to customers who were impacted.

What happened

A piece of hardware in our backbone network failed yesterday morning. Hardware issues of this sort are fairly commonplace and redundancy in our networkaddressed any immediate concern.

Most backbone networks, including Comcast’s, are designed to heal themselves and route traffic along alternate paths much like a detour would route automobile traffic around a street closed for construction.

One type of traffic that gets automatically rerouted is Domain Name System (DNS) traffic. Unfortunately, some of that traffic shifted in an unexpected way and overloaded local DNS server capacity causing many customers to experience service interruptions.

What we are doing about it

Since the incident, we have been working non-stop to fully understand the problem and bring additional DNS capacity online in the affected areas, so we can prevent it from happening again.

We all rely on the Internet and expect it to be there when we need it. We are directly reaching out to those who reported problems last night to offer our apologies and a credit for lost service.

We are also building a Web site that impacted customers can visit to receive their credit. We will update this post with a link to that site as soon as it is available and will share the link on Twitter through our customer support handle @comcastcares.

]]>Thu May 21 2015On May 5th we announced a new multi-year plan to reinvent the customer experience. That plan includes everything from additional training for our employees, to hiring more than 5,500 people, to developing new tools and technology, to new and improved stores, to a new commitment to always be on time.

The call center will be designed to support these new employees and equip them with everything they need to deliver an excellent customer experience. These representatives will assist customers with billing and repair questions as well as sales and customer service. Specialized teams will handle more complex customer needs. The center will also be home to our new Spanish speaking employees specializing in social media.

When the building renovation is complete, the 100,000 square-foot center will include product training labs, training rooms, video conference facilities, a cafeteria and a fitness center.

To celebrate this milestone in Tucson, we held a press conference today with Governor Doug Ducey of Arizona. We also announced that 15 percent of the hires at the Tucson center will be reservists, veterans and their spouses or domestic partners - part of our commitment to 10,000 military hires by the end of 2017.

The Tucson center is just one piece of this story. Between now and early 2016 we will open three new customer support centers and hire more than 2,000 of the 5,500 total new employees. We already announced the opening of our center in Albuquerque, New Mexico and details about our center in Spokane, Washington are coming soon.

So far, the response from the communities where these centers will be located has been great. We have received over 2,000 applications so far for the 450 jobs we are filling in Albuquerque, which has given us a chance to evaluate a lot of great candidates and put together the very best team (approximately 100 new employees have been hired to date). Hiring for the Tucson center is off to a running start as well, with thousands of applications already coming in. If you’re interested, please let us know!

These new hires will help us bring our customers, in Arizona and across the country, the support they need. These additional hires will be an important step towards our goal of making call wait times shorter and helping customers get their service or billing issues resolved faster.

We’ll keep you posted as the hiring continues and additional centers open.

]]>Mon Mar 23 2015When we first launched our social care team in 2007, the idea of engaging with customers on social media was brand new. Today the world looks completely different. Customers are using Twitter, Facebook and a continually growing number of social platforms for everything — it’s where they go to give feedback, ask questions, and look for help.

We have a great team dedicated to helping our customers on social. Their mission is to provide care and support to anyone who needs help, wherever they want it. The challenge is keeping pace with the rapid growth of social platforms and how people use them.

So, today we are excited to announce that we are tripling the size of our social care team and giving them additional resources and support so they can be more responsive and helpful to customers. With a much bigger team, we’ll be able to support customers across more platforms. And we’ll be able to get to them faster. A larger team also means that we'll be able to increase bicoastal and bilingual coverage to make sure we are available 24/7 to customers who speak either English or Spanish.

The social care team has access to all the same advanced tools and training as our call center agents do, which means they can quickly jump in to solve problems. They also have a direct line to our tech teams so they can schedule appointments.

We are going to continue to grow social care as much as it takes to make it a real, vibrant way for customers to get their questions answered and issues resolved. We’re just beginning the hiring process now and it’s going to take some time to get up and running, but we are really excited about the possibilities. If you’re interested in becoming part of this team we’d love to hear from you.

]]>Mon Feb 23 2015When it comes to customer service, the very best help should be available when and where you want it. That’s why we’ve been working so hard on our My Account app, which launched last year and is available to all customers via their mobile devices.

My Account app – which has been downloaded more than 1 million times and is adding tens of thousands of new users every week – enables customers to easily get account information, pay their bill, troubleshoot issues and more, from wherever they are, and without having to speak with an agent.

Customers love it, which is why we are excited to bring the My Account app to the biggest screen in the home – your television. Customers with X1 can now access all the great My Account features with a simple click of the remote. Here’s what you can do:

Manage account details, view and pay your bill

View and/or cancel upcoming service appointments

Check on the status of the equipment in your home

Check for outage notifications in your area

Troubleshoot issues with helpful videos, articles and how to’s

We’re continuing to enhance the My Account platform with new and improved features all the time. For mobile, we recently introduced a call back feature, so you can schedule a convenient time for us to call you instead of having to wait on hold. And we are also trialing a new tracking feature that enables customers with scheduled appointments to track the arrival of technicians in real time.

Stay tuned for more updates, but in the meantime, sit back, relax and enjoy all the features of My Account without leaving your couch.

]]>Thu Feb 05 2015I spend a lot of time talking to customers and one of the first questions I get is "why does my bill change month to month?" There are a lot of things that can contribute to changes on your monthly bill. Did you order a movie or two? Did you upgrade your speed? Did you pay your last bill in full? All of these factors can impact the number you see at the bottom of your bill.

For these reasons and more, your bill can change month to month. These changes can be confusing, so we want to make it easier for you to understand what you’re paying for, and why.

One of the ways we are doing this is with something we call Video Bill. We worked with a smart video company called SundaySky to create a short, personalized video that explains everything customers need to know about their bill. Today, we send an email to all new Xfinity customers with a link to their own personal Video Bill. So far we've had over 1 million views.

Because Video Bill has been so successful with new customers, we are now starting to send them to existing customers as well. If you make a significant change to your service (for example, if you were an Internet only customer and add television) we will send you a video to explain the first bill that includes the new service.

Videos are a great way for us to communicate with our customers, and we’re looking to incorporate them wherever it makes sense. In fact, we’ve started including video tutorials on My Account App.

Video Bill is one of the many changes we are implementing to make our bills simpler. Stay tuned for more…

]]>Thu Jan 29 2015It’s a privilege to have customers use our products and to have them invite us into their homes. Each and every customer deserves to be treated with respect, and in a recent situation with a customer in Spokane that clearly didn’t happen.

We have apologized to our customer for this unacceptable situation and addressed it directly with the employee who will no longer be working on behalf of Comcast. We're also looking at a number of technical solutions that would prevent it from happening moving forward.

We took this opportunity to reinforce with each employee just how important respect is to our culture. In every interaction we have with a customer, we need to show them respect, patience, and enthusiasm to provide them with an excellent experience.

The culture of a company is the collective habits of its people – we have great people at Comcast and we need to treat customers with the respect they deserve. Respect is not just how we speak with customers, but also respect for their time and making it much easier for them to interact with us ... whether it's solving a problem, ordering service or simply asking a question.

We're working hard to transform the customer experience and all of our employees play an important role in making that happen. We'll take every opportunity to learn from our mistakes and fix issues to make their experience better.

]]>Wed Jan 21 2015Over the last few weeks, we’ve talked a lot about how important it is to give our employees the right tools for the job, but it’s equally important that we provide the right training.

Last week I got to participate in a pretty innovative tradition here at Comcast that is entirely focused on training…and some fun, too!

It’s called CommTech Jeopardy and it’s led by Patrick O’Hare and Tom Karinshak. Here’s how it works. Each year, technicians and care agents from across the company team up to compete against each other by correctly answering tough questions about the technical side of our business. These tournaments are hosted locally all over the country, and the top six teams come together in Orlando, Florida for the National Championship.

As a first timer, I didn’t really know what to expect, but I was blown away by the experience, and so impressed by our techs and care agents, their deep technical knowledge, and the drive and passion they have for our company, our products and solving problems for our customers.

I also got the chance to talk to our employees, who told me how valuable the contest is from a training and teamwork perspective. They spend months studying, which gives them an opportunity to freshen up on what they already know, learn new things, meet new colleagues, and get familiar with areas of the business they don’t necessarily deal with day-to-day. And it’s not just the finalists who benefit, it’s all our techs and agents across the company who participate along the way. One tech said it best: ‘the competition up’s everyone’s game.’

Tom, Patrick and I also took advantage of having some of our best techs and care agents together in one place, and spent half a day hearing from them about what’s working, what’s not, and where we need to do better. They said the tools we’ve given them are great…but they need more – and faster. They also want better communication tools between our care agents, our dispatch office and our technicians. So we’re going to get working on all of that.

As we’ve said, training is a critical part of improving the customer experience. But so is rewarding our amazing employees for their hard work. CommTech Jeopardy brings the best of both together.

Huge congratulations to the winning team – Cloud X. But for me, the best part is that, no matter who wins, CommTech Jeopardy makes a difference for our employees and our customers.

]]>Mon Dec 22 2014Over the last few weeks I have been meeting with the customer care leaders who handle our most complex service calls. When they talk to customers, it is usually because the customers’ issues weren’t resolved the first time around.

These team members are highly trained experts who are passionate about taking care of our customers. They know firsthand what frustrates customers most, and they go above and beyond every day. Hearing from them and getting their insights is critical as we continue to deliver the experiences our customers deserve.

Going forward, we will be getting these customer care leaders more involved in helping us identify our greatest opportunities for improvement. They have a lot to teach us about addressing some of our biggest problems, ranging from call transfers, to missed appointments, to equipment returns (something we’re actively addressing with our new partnership with The UPS Store). These teams also know what’s resonating well with customers. For example, they hear a lot about how customers want options for how they talk to us and how they manage their services. That’s why we’re investing so much in tools like the My Account app, which lets customers troubleshoot on their own, pay their bill, and manage appointments from their mobile device.

We need to keep learning from these folks as we work to make each interaction our customers have with us excellent.

]]>Thu Dec 18 2014No one wants to wait on hold if they can avoid it, so we are giving customers the option to skip holding altogether through a new Xfinity My Account App feature.

With the new feature, customers can schedule a time for a Comcast representative to call them to resolve whatever issue they may be dealing with – no waiting.

Here’s how it works. One of the main features of the My Account app is the interactive troubleshooting guide, which takes customers through steps designed to help them fix whatever issue they are having themselves. If your issue is still not resolved after going through the troubleshooting steps, there is an option to call us. But here’s where it gets good. If you don’t want to call us, we will call you. Simply enter in your phone number, select the time you want us to call you (call times are available in 15 minute windows), and you’re all set.

Not a phone person? There is an option in the app to chat with an expert on Twitter as well. You can even snap a photo of your screen and Tweet it to us, so we can see exactly what you’re seeing.

These features are available to all customers today on the My Account app. But, don’t think this means we’ve stopped working to make the phone experience the best it can be. It’s the opposite. We’re working hard to make sure we are serving our customers as quickly as possible across all our channels.

]]>Mon Dec 08 2014I’ve spent much of the first few weeks in my new role listening. I’ve been talking to our customer care employees, our technicians, my regional counterparts and plenty of customers.

While it’s still early, a few things have already become clear, and I wanted to get in the habit of sharing my thoughts with you … and I’d love to hear your feedback as well. Some of my updates will be highly tactical, and some will be big picture, but all will give you a peek into how we are working to make the customer experience better.

To do this right, we need to be listening. And not listening to the good stuff … or even the ok stuff … but the really hard stuff. So I’ve been meeting with customers to talk about experiences they’ve had that just really didn’t go well, and reading their discussions online about how they’ve tried to address their issues. I’ve also been meeting with our customer care employees to understand what their experience is like, and how we can help them serve our customers better.

One of the things that’s been apparent from the get-go is that our employees truly care about our customers. They have a genuine desire to make customers happy. When things don’t go well, the disconnect – whether it’s missed handoffs or an inability to fully get at the root of an issue – typically isn’t the customer care employee. It’s the "tools" at their disposal.

So one of the key takeaways from all my listening … getting the right tools in the hands of all our employees, and employee empowerment, is a key area for us to double, or even triple down on in the months ahead. We’ve already made great progress. Every two weeks we are rolling out improvements to Einstein, our platform that makes it easier and faster for our customer care agents to help customers. But there is so much more we can – and will – do here so stay tuned for updates as we focus on this important area.

]]>Thu Nov 20 2014You have things to do. Waiting for us to show up shouldn’t be one of them. That’s why we’ve narrowed our service windows to two hours or less. Even with that progress, it isn’t good enough. You should know when we are arriving.

Last week, our CEO Brian Roberts demoed one of our new features at an event in San Francisco that enables our customers to track our technicians' arrival in real time. This new feature, which will be available for free through our MyAccount app, begins trialing outside Boston this week.

This is how it works. Customers with scheduled appointments will be alerted through our App when our technician is about 30 minutes away from arriving at their house, and will be able to track this technician’s progress on a map. We’re hoping this will prevent our customers from just needing to sit at home and wait. They can check the app from the office, or wherever they are, and head home when they see we’re on our way. If we are running late, which can happen if our tech gets tied up at someone else’s house, we will let folks know that too, and provide real-time status updates so they can plan accordingly.

Feedback is critical to us, especially as we look to make every experience great, so also included is a "rate the experience" feature so that customers can rate the quality of service they received from us in the app. If the experience isn’t what it should have been, customers can let us know, and we will call them to see how we can correct the situation as quickly as possible.

All of this is going into trial now, and we’re excited to get our customers’ feedback and continue to update and refine the experience. We’ll keep you posted on what we’re hearing from the trial. If all goes well, we’re hoping to bring this new experience to customers in the new year.

]]>Thu Nov 06 2014We know some of our customers may have missed their favorite shows off and on over the past few days and were unable to easily reach our customer care representatives for assistance … and we’re really sorry.

In the process of upgrading the X1 platform with new services and features, a technical issue arose that caused problems for our customers. We're working now to identify the customers who were impacted to personally apologize and proactively give them credits which we plan to have out to them within the next two weeks. This issue was our fault and we want to make it right.

So what happened? While we were deploying an upgrade to the X1 platform, we discovered an issue in the way the software that updates X1 was configured. We immediately stopped the deployment, and our engineers began working to identify the root cause and fix the issue.

While service has returned to normal for most X1 customers, our engineers are now going back over this issue and taking extra steps to prevent it from happening again. The fix we’ve put in place should be automatic – customers don’t need to do anything (such as rebooting or unplugging the box).

Thanks to our customers who have been patient with us, and to our employees who have been working around the clock on this.

]]>Thu Oct 30 2014If you didn’t see the news today, we’re working with The UPS Store to make it easier than ever for our customers to return their equipment. Seriously it couldn’t be simpler…and it’s free.

(Photo: AP Images)

]]>Wed Oct 08 2014What happened with Mr. O’Rourke's service is completely unacceptable. Despite our attempts to address Mr. O’Rourke’s issues, we simply dropped the ball and did not make things right. Mr. O’Rourke deserves another apology from us and we’re making this one publicly. We also want to clarify that nobody at Comcast asked for him to be fired.

We’re also determined to get to the bottom of exactly what happened with his service, figure out what went wrong at every point along the way, and fix any underlying issues. I’m a few weeks into a new role at Comcast which is entirely focused on what we can do to make the customer experience better. We need to make sure that every interaction is excellent … from the moment a customer orders a new service, to the installation, to the way we communicate with them, to how we respond to any issues.

We’re holding ourselves accountable and we are working hard to make real improvements across the board. While it will take us some time, we can and will do better than this.

]]>Fri Sep 26 2014Our employees have been working hard to improve the customer experience over the last several years. Our customers deserve the best experience every time they interact with us. While we’ve made progress, we need to do a better job to make sure those interactions are excellent … from the moment a customer orders a new service, to the installation, to the way we communicate with them, to how we respond to any issues.

That’s why I am pleased to announce today that Charlie Herrin has been named SVP, Customer Experience, reporting to both Dave Watson and me. In this new role, Charlie will partner with leaders across all business units, including customer service, technical operations, sales, marketing, training and development, and product innovation to reimagine the customer experience and ensure that we are delighting our customers at each touch point. Charlie will listen to feedback from customers as well as our employees to make sure we are putting our customers at the center of every decision we make.

Anyone who knows or has worked with Charlie has seen first-hand his unwavering commitment to the customer. In his most recent role as SVP, Product Design and Development, Charlie led the design team behind the development of X1 and spearheaded the company’s initiative to deliver a consistent user experience across platforms. Charlie and his team received the 2011 Emmy Award for outstanding achievement for the Xfinity TV iPad app and a 2013 Emmy Award for the X1 user interface. X1 was a breakthrough for us, and we need the best customer service to accompany these great products. Charlie will bring the same passion for customer-focused innovation that he brought to developing products to this new role. Charlie will begin his new role immediately, but will continue to work with our CTO, Tony Werner, and his current team until a new head of product design and development is in place.

Over the last few years, we’ve been incredibly focused on product innovation and delivering great content and technology experiences. But this is only one half of the customer experience equation. The other half is operational excellence in how we deliver service. The way we interact with our customers – on the phone, online, in their homes – is as important to our success as the technology we provide. Put simply, customer service should be our best product.

We have made significant changes and investments in customer service that have set a solid foundation. Under the leadership of Tom Karinshak, SVP, Customer Service and Patrick O’Hare, SVP, Field Operations, we are addressing some very real pain points that are making it easier for our employees to serve our customers, and easier for our customers to do business with us. We rolled out new tools in our call centers like Einstein to help our employees provide better, faster service to our customers. At the same time, we shortened our technician appointment windows to 1-2 hours, introduced new self-service apps so customers have more choice in how they interact with us, and we are making improvements to our service centers across the country. Tom and Patrick will continue to lead this important work in customer service and field operations.

Now it’s time to take the next step forward in that transformation. Our customers deserve the best and we need to work harder to earn their trust and their business every day by exceeding their expectations.

Transformation isn’t going to happen overnight. In fact, it may take a few years before we can honestly say that a great customer experience is something we’re known for. But that is our goal and our number one priority … and that’s what we are going to do.

]]>Tue Oct 04 2011As we enter October, most people are settling into back-to-school schedules, football season, and the start of the October Classic. While my fellow Philadelphians get ready to cheer on our Phillies in the playoffs, my coworkers at Comcast are also recognizing another important annual event. The first full week of October is when thousands of companies across the United States and around the world celebrate Customer Service Week.

First introduced in 1988, this annual event acknowledges the importance of customer service as a critical component for success in business while celebrating the dedicated teams and individuals that help customers each and every day across a range of products and services. In 1992, "National Customer Service Week" was officially established in the United States as the U.S. Congress officially recognized it with a proclamation from President George Bush declaring:

"A business built on customer service understands and anticipates the customer's needs...A business will do a better job of providing high quality goods and services by listening to its employees and by empowering them with opportunities to make a difference."

Fast forward two decades, and the impact of customer support has never been more critical in a hyper-competitive world and has never been more in focus for Comcast than it is today.

Over the last few years Comcast has made significant investments to help our customer service agents make a difference for our customers — from new tools, technologies and training to our "Customer Guarantee" that fully backs all of our products and hold us accountable. We have even created an entire team called OneComcast that gathers feedback directly from customers and is focused on enhancing products and processes to deliver a world class entertainment and communications experience.

As a member of Comcast's Digital Media Outreach Team and a social media customer service specialist, Bill helps customers who use Twitter, Forums and Facebook. Working with Bill every day, I can tell you that he embodies the passion and values of thousands of Comcast customer support agents nation-wide.

I am proud to work every day alongside the thousands of Comcast customer service professionals, like Bill, who strive to make a difference for each and every customer. With that in mind, please join me in congratulating Bill and taking a moment to celebrate customer service professionals everywhere during Customer Service Week.

]]>Thu Aug 18 2011I recently had the opportunity to participate in a panel discussion about the power of listening and engaging with customers through social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and other Forums.

Leading social innovator, Guy Kawasaki (@GuyKawasaki ) moderated the panel, which was held in conjunction with the release of a Forrester Research study sponsored by Dell. This study looks at how social media outreach is influencing the way that companies do business.

It was exciting to speak with my fellow panelists from Dell (@JasonDatDell), UPS (@DebCM), REI (@JordanCWilliam) and Twitter (@ShaneSteele) about how we use social media tools across our respective companies. From listening and supporting customer inquiries to improved product delivery and organizational process change, social media is one of the biggest catalysts of change in recent business history.

It is clear that we are living in an era where individual customers and communities of people can easily share their voice about any topic using social media technologies. Additionally, social media is now encouraging companies to do more for consumers based on this raw, powerful, and passionate feedback. We are seeing more and more companies beginning to implement proactive changes throughout their organizations, all based on the simple power of a 140 character comment or the click of a "+1" button.

At Comcast, we take the voices of our customers and the feedback they share through social media very seriously. We see it is an incredible opportunity to engage directly with customers as we work to continually enhance their communication and entertainment experiences with Comcast.

]]>Mon May 09 2011As many of you may know, Comcast has offered self-installation kits that let you set-up one or two of our products on your own schedule. When we started thinking about redesigning those kits to be even more user friendly, we turned to two experts in that field — our customers and a leading innovation firm called frog.

Who is frog, you may ask? Well, if you're a fan of Disney, Hewlett Packard or Intel, chances are you've experienced frog's work in product, packaging, and service design, as the firm counts these companies among their clients.

After reviewing our existing self-install kits with frog, we developed several concepts, including a first-of-its kind three-product kit, which we tested with customers for feedback. Not surprisingly, ease and convenience topped the list of desired features.

I recently had the chance to preview the new Xfinity Triple Play self-installation kit for video, Internet and phone services. I found this to be a user-friendly option for people who want to easily begin using our TV, voice and Internet services out-of-the box. Check it out.

]]>Wed Mar 09 2011If you're anything like me, you probably have a lot of technology connected to your home Internet service -- a wireless router, a game console and a Wi-Fi enabled smart phone or tablet. While these devices have become a big part of my daily life, they do add a layer of technical complexity, especially if something goes awry.

As more and more households embrace these technologies, their support needs also are changing. According to a 2010 Parks Associates survey, 75 percent of people said they would prefer to receive all of their technical support services from a single source. In addition, the survey found that more than half of all Americans who have Internet service look to their broadband provider as their first or second choice in solving their home computer-related technical issues.

I recently had a chance to sit down with Mitch Bowling, SVP & GM of New Business, and Dan Herscovici, VP of New Business & Product Development, and speak with them about how Comcast is addressing this growing trend with the launch of a new service called Xfinity Signature Support.

This new offering enables customers to select an enhanced level of technical support with monthly subscription plans and one-time support options. It's available in addition to the 24x7 support Comcast already provides for its video, high-speed Internet and phone services, and is another step in the company's ongoing commitment to improving the customer experience.

Xfinity Signature Support is beginning to roll out now and will be available across the country in the coming months.

]]>Wed Jul 21 2010I recently attended the 8th annual American Business Awards, where Comcast was recognized as a finalist in the Customer Service Executive of the Year and Customer Service Team of the Year categories. What’s so special about this? Companies get nominated for awards like this all the time.

Allow me to explain…

It’s no secret that customer service has been one of Comcast’s most public issues. And we’ve been working very hard to improve that. Recognition from an organization like the ABA is validation that the significant changes we’ve made over the last few years are making a difference at Comcast and for our customers.

Having worked in customer service and operations roles for nearly 20 years, I’ve learned that employees who feel great about their company and are united around something are key to being able to deliver great customer service.

Here in Greater Boston, that means making the Customer Guarantee and expectations about customer service improvements the focus of conversation at every team meeting. And, it requires our employees to take accountability for reinforcing trust and value through their individual actions and effective delivery of the promises in our Guarantee. We’re proud of the progress we’ve made and know we can’t rest on our accomplishments. That’s one of the reasons why our employees took the initiative to create

"Guarantee Improvement Teams" so they can brainstorm ideas and solutions for making our customers’ experiences with us even better.

We didn’t win the ABA awards, but as the saying goes, it’s an honor to be nominated. And more importantly, our customers are the real winners as we continually work to improve their experiences with us.

]]>Mon May 17 2010I’ve worked in customer service for more than 20 years – the last 10 of which have been at Comcast where I’ve managed call-center teams around the country. I’ve gotten to meet and speak with many of our Customer Service employees and one thing is crystal clear: if your employees are happy then your customers are more likely to be happy. And by happy employees, I mean employees who feel engaged, empowered and have a sense of direction in their careers.

You may have read in earlier posts about how we’ve met with employees and customers and used their feedback as the basis for some significant operational changes, like new tools, processes and programs. While those operational changes are a very important part of the equation, developing the people who use them to serve our customers is equally as important. That’s why I was thrilled when Comcast recently asked me to lead a new team focused on helping our Customer Service reps and supervisors grow and develop.

In my new role as head of Human Performance for National Customer Operations, we’re looking at making the kinds of improvements our employees have told us would be most meaningful for them in their interactions with customers. For example, growth and development plans. As strange as it may seem, the customer service industry in general isn’t typically recognized for creating career paths. That’s changing at Comcast as we’ve begun using specialized career-path programs with our Customer Service reps that provide them with training and development and require them to meet more challenging performance levels in order to advance. And these levels are based on factors that matter to our customers, like knowledge of our services, efficient handling of issues, and consistently high-quality work.

We’re also making some basic changes, like introducing new Supervisor Development Programs and reducing supervisor-to-employee ratios to improve coaching opportunities. And we’re standardizing many internal policies and procedures so that all our employees know what we expect of them, and have the resources necessary to do their jobs and do them well whether they’re here in Philadelphia or across the country in San Francisco.

We are placing a huge emphasis in the Human Performance area because I truly believe that our customers’ experience will be enhanced. As I said above, my mantra is happy employees = happy customers. I look forward to being able to share more with you as our work progresses.

]]>Wed Apr 14 2010My name is Lee Khatchadourian- Reese; you can just call me Lee. As Vice President of Business Services in the National Customer Operations group, I realize that customers are the reason that Comcast is in business. My team assists customers with getting the most out of their support experience with our products and services.

In this role, I am really lucky to have the opportunity to work closely with our customers and hear firsthand what they have to say. After all, they are the ones driving our company and ultimately determine our success or failure. As I planned my first blog post I wanted to introduce myself, my role and Comcast and talk a little about where we are heading in Business Services, but I realized it would be more fun to talk about a few of our business customers, just as I look forward to talking to you.

Not surprisingly, our Business Class customers are diverse. They range from stay-at-home moms running home-based businesses to consulting firms managing teams of employees, to local pizza shops, nail salons and retailers.

Regardless of what type of company they may run, all of our Business Class customers look for similar things when it comes to the services they receive from us- speed, reliability, competitive pricing, and superior support.

In the last few weeks, I’ve had the privilege to converse with some of our customers who all subscribe to Business Class services for different reasons. Take Christopher Riordan, for instance. He’s a part of our large customer base of telecommuters (I’m so envious of them sometimes!). Working remotely, away from an office, means that things like quick download speeds and reliable phone service are essential to his day-to-day job. I am happy that Comcast is able to provide the fast, reliable service he needs to be effective at work.

Chatting with Ryan Meray, owner of the IT support company, C! Tech Solutions, reinforced just how important upload speed are for businesses.

In his work, Ryan frequently has to send large files to clients, so having fast, reliable Internet means he can deliver better service to his customers. "My upload speed is phenomenal and actually exceeds what I should be getting on paper", said Ryan.

As you can tell, I really like my job, especially when I have the opportunity to interact with our customers. I do realize that not everyone has the same great experience as Christopher and Ryan. That’s why I’m posting this blog, so that I can hear more from our customers.

It is a part of my role to understand what our customers think about their experience with Business Class products and services, so I can gauge where we need to focus our attention next. Whether it’s contributing to the methodology to support our Wideband DOCSIS 3.0 infrastructure to provide even faster speeds or improving the existing support system our dedicated Business Class front line folks provide, I am all ears. I look forward to hearing about your experiences with Business Class and using your feedback to help shape our overall strategy for delivering superior service.